biography

 The Ethical Principles in the Patent of Life Patent law has relied in part on ethical considerations since its inception in Europe. Such considerations have been introduced more recently in the United States. Whereas the EU Directive on the protection on the occasion of the Human Genome Project of biotechnological inventions was intended to foster economic development in Europe, its implementation is outweighted by controversy about patenting life and commercialization of science. The confusion created must be cleared at the international level through harmonization of patent office policies preventing abusive commercial practices in the absence of inventiveness. 

 The Ethical Principles in Cloning - Human reproductive cloning remains universally condemned, primarily for the psychological, social, and physiological risks associated with cloning. A cloned embryo  intended for implantation into a womb requires thorough molecular testing to fully determine whether an embryo is healthy and whether the cloning process is complete. In addition, as demonstrated by 100 failed attempts to generate a cloned macaque  in 2007, a viable pregnancy is not guaranteed. Because the risks associated with reproductive cloning in humans introduce a very high likelihood of loss of life, the process is considered unethical. There are other philosophical issues that also have been raised concerning the nature of reproduction  and human identity that reproductive cloning might violate. Concerns about eugenics , the once popular notion that the human species could be improved through the selection of individuals possessing desired trait...

  The Ethical Principles of Gene Therapy 1 - Therapy vs. enhancement.  There is a consensus that gene therapy should be  therapy,  i.e. the correction of  bona fide  disease conditions, rather than  enhancement , which would mean "improving the human species" (whatever that means...) and therefore would entail the introduction in human subjects of novel characteristics going beyond the usual, medical, understanding of health (i.e. health as absence of serious disease). 2 - Somatic vs. germ line gene therapy.  All current research on humans deals with somatic gene therapy. In these projects somatic cells such as bone-marrow, liver, lung or vascular epithelium etc. are genetically modified. Since the germ line is not affected, all effects of therapy end with the life of the patient, at the very latest. In fact, most somatic therapies will probably require repeated applications, much like ordinary pharmacological treatments. 3 - Germ line therapy is ...